The 12th Human Rights Film Festival at the University of San Francisco runs from April 3-5th. Admission is free and open to the public. Screenings take place on campus at Presentation Theater (2350 Turk Boulevard x Masonic).
As always, the festival includes thought provoking feature length documentaries and documentary shorts from around the world including Latin America. Here are four titles that we encourage you to see. For full program information and clips visit the USF website.
Thursday April 3rd 5:30PM
OPEN SKY Argentina, Filmmaker: Ines Compan, Year: 2009, 52 min
In rural northwest Argentina, the indigenous Kolla’s land and quality of life is threatened after the government permits a Canadian company, Standard Silver to open an ambitious open-sky silver mine in Mina Pirquitas.
Friday April 4th 7:15 PM
ROSARIO Mexico, Filmmaker: Shula Erberg, Year: 2013, 70 min
The documentary is a portrait of Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, a woman whose son disappeared at the hands of the security forces in 1975 in the city of Monterrey and whose life was transformed forever.
Saturday April 5th 12:45 PM
LA CIGUEÑA METALICA (Metal Stork) Spain, Filmmaker: Joan Lopez Lloret, Year: 2012, 81 min
Twenty years have passed since the signing of the Peace Agreements of the Salvadoran Civil War, a conflict between the army and the FMLN guerrillas. Armed forces’ operations in rural areas had devastating consequences for the civilian population, with thousands of dead and disappeared people. In the midst of the war, “la cigueña metálica” (the mechanic stork) determined the destiny of Ana Lilian, Ricardo y Blanca: Ricardo’s adoption by a military family, Ana Lilian’s wandering after surviving the massacre of her entire family, Blanca’s arrival to Spain. In the 1980s, they were disappeared children. Today, they try to understand their past to bring peace to their future.
Saturday April 5th 4:15 PM
WHO IS DAYANI CRISTAL? UK, Filmmaker: Marc Silver, Year: 2012, 85 min
Deep in the sun-blistered Sonora desert beneath a cicada tree, Arizona border police discover a decomposing male body. Lifting a tattered T-shirt, they expose a tattoo that reads “Dayani Cristal”. Who is this person? What brought him here? How did he die? And who—or what—is Dayani Cristal? Following a team of dedicated staff from the Pima County Morgue in Arizona, director Marc Silver seeks to answer these questions and give this anonymous man an identity.
